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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GST who wrote (28906)	9/20/2006 11:23:27 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541070

My aim for discussion is thoughtful, civil and balanced; it looks at both sides of the issue to see what people are doing and thinking, and evaluates policy ideas critically, to see if they really have much chance to succeed. Frankly, very few people on SI know how to do that, care about doing that or bother to do that. Very few people have any social science analysis training that would make them think that way, period. Discussion is very much welcome here if it is backed up by facts, evidence, strong reasoning and a look at all sides of the issue. I set the bar pretty high.

To: GST who wrote (28906)	9/20/2006 1:34:57 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 541070

Your concern is well placed. But what room does it leave for people to discuss issues that are by the nature going to be contentious -- I assume you do not want a sterile posting of polls and articles -- neither is really "discussion". And often polls are often mum on the important issues. I'm reluctant to get in to this conversation. It is, after all, Dale's thread and under SI rules, he gets to make the rules, interpret the rules, and apply the rules. But there is another strategy for posting here besides some sort of commitment to centrist politics. At least there is until I, and a few others, get booted off. And that's to make clear our position, post comments of our own, articles from newspapers, book reviews, what nots that either reflect our point of view or are simply interesting to anyone concerned about politics. The defining thing for us is easy. Don't take arguments personally; don't attack posters with other views on personal grounds; when disagreements reach a certain undefined but knowable number of iterations, just take a pass. Move on to another topic. So, for us, Dale's thread is that rarest of SI places, one in which you can have a, mostly, civil conversation about politics.